Brownback Signs School Finance Bill

Governor Brownback took his time about it, but yesterday he finally signed SB 19, the new school finance proposal passed by the House and Senate.

Of course, in his signing statement, he had to take the opportunity to complain about the Legislature’s work product saying, “The Legislature missed an opportunity to substantially improve the K-12 funding system.” We suppose he still preferred his unconstitutional block grant system that froze funding thereby helping to pay for his tax cuts for the wealthiest Kansans.

But if Brownback won’t, we will give the Legislature credit for listening, debating, sometimes arguing and eventually coming to a consensus about this new proposed formula. House K-12 Budget Committee Chairman Larry Campbell (R-Olathe) spent the entire session with his committee researching, hearing testimony, studying data and coming to the conclusion that the “old” formula was not terribly flawed and simply needed some adjustments. The House bill was then the framework that Senate Select Committee on School Finance Chairman Jim Denning used with his committee members to guide their work.

Whether this plan fully complies with the Supreme Court order or not, we have to give kudos to the legislators of both chambers who spent the time to do this work and do it conscientiously. The Governor is flat out wrong in his assessment of this as a “missed opportunity.”

We believe that when the Supreme Court is done with their review, they will find the finance formula in SB 19 by and large to be constitutional. There are a couple of issues in the bill that might give them concern- particularly around equalization- but the bill does target funding to the students who need the most help and does so in a rational manner.

We also believe that the Supreme Court will likely rule that the funding is not adequate – particularly after the first year.

Remember when we say this that the only people who get to decide are the members of the Court! We can only speculate.

What might the Court do?

The Court could simply rule that SB 19 does not adequately address Gannon and send the Legislature back to the drawing board in a special session.

Another possibility is that the Court approves the formula, perhaps putting a stay on one or two items as “disequalizing,” but call the funding inadequate and send the Legislature back to work in a special session.

A third possibility is that the Court approves the formula, approves the first year of funding, and gives the Legislature another year to address the adequacy of funding in the out years.

What we do know is that there is June 30 deadline. The Court has said they will take this case on an expedited basis. Between now and the deadline, they will need to hear the State’s defense and the Plaintiff’s arguments. Don’t look for this process to be a couple of days and done!

Guns: Coming to a College Near You This July

The Governor also announced that he would allow the newest gun bill to become law without his signature because the Legislature did not cave to the NRA-written “compromise” on guns in state mental hospitals.

State Hospitals, the KU Medical Center, and all public colleges and universities in Kansas have until July 1, 2017, to either provide metal detectors and security personnel at all entrances or allow concealed firearms to by carried by anyone anywhere anytime – no permit or training necessary.

Several times this session legislators tried to get the law changed for colleges and universities but despite overwhelming public support for allowing colleges to restrict firearms, the NRA demanded blind obedience to their position that guns should be everywhere and the legislation never moved.

It wasn’t until Brownback – who enthusiastically signed the bill opening mental hospitals and colleges to guns – asked for $24 million to secure entrances to mental hospitals for one year that people realized the full extent of meeting the requirement. A bill was then drafted to allow hospitals to ban weapons but the NRA stepped in to fight the bill. Seeing it would likely pass, the NRA then drafted an amendment that would not make them have security but instead allow guns in reception and parking lots, but the hospital would have to provide gun lockers for anyone with a gun seeking to go into patient areas.

In fighting for this amendment, one Senator actually said: “this is the amendment the NRA will allow us to adopt.” Despite the NRA “permission,” the Legislature passed the bill giving hospitals the right to regulate guns on hospital property. This was a loss for the NRA, and this is why the Governor only reluctantly will allow the bill to become law without his signature.

And for those of you working in our technical colleges, community colleges, and universities, it looks like guns will be a reality in your classrooms starting July 1.